"Wags", are you Quad IV's the same pitch as the Bravo 4 blades? If so, I'm surprised your cruise speed is less. I tried a set of Bravo 4's on mine and lost 3 mph at cruise, but I'm running much less horsepower than you. Don't know what difference that would make but maybe something. Just curious, that's all.

Next week I'm going up to Innovation Marine to talk to them about some "motor work". Russ

Outlaw
Which pitch hydomotive props do you have on your boat? Are they labed? Which rotation are you running (in or out )? Sorry I have more questions than answers. Thanks for your help.
Don

"DG", My Hydromotives are 24 inch, however they were tweaked a bit at the "prop shop" and now they're 25's.
I figure I must also be getting a lot less slip at cruise with these props than my old Mirage. The first time I tested and compared, I couldn't believe the difference. Swapped back to the Mirage then back again to the Quad IV's. All speeds by GPS. Results were the same. I gained a solid 6 mph at "cruise rpms" and 3 on the top. With the Mirage 23's my cruise speed was 47, now it's 53. Outlaw rides much higher and at a better angle than before. The way I modified my "silent thunder" I can hear the difference when the boat is lifting out of the water, the enlarged holes in the bottom of the muffler box is now higher off the water resulting in more noise. By the way, I gained 300 rpms by the mods to the silent thunder. I also cut the partitions out that are "glassed in place" in front of the rectangular exhaust outlets. Runs and sounds much better. I run them out but I am going to try running them in just to see the difference, though I love the way the boat handls around the docks. I can parallel park it. Russ

Russ
The silent thunder on my boat is also modified , but in a different way. There are three 1 inch holes drilled on the inside of the platform. Also the flaps are removed and it looks like the partitions are also removed. It is a little louder than my dads 272 but it is not horable.

Don

Don, like I said I removed the partitions that were "glassed in", directly in front of the rectangular exhaust outlets, and where the small circular holes in the bottom of the box were, are now big honkin' rectangular holes, big enough I worry about Pelicans making nests up there. You can really hear the difference when the boat lifts out of the water. It starts to really roar. I love it. Am going to end up taking the silent thunder off, going with some new thru hulls, and putting on an Extreme Marine tubular swim platform to keep my wife not quite as mad as usual.

Formula Outlaw,
The Hydromotives are also 26" they are the Quad IV Intimidator's and they definitely cruise slower than the Bravo's, approx 2 mph. I believe they have a Quad IV X that is set up more for our older style hulls that would cruise better than the Quad IV. I also tried turning the Hydro's in and it picked up 1 to 2 mph on the top end but porpoised in the mid range, But the boat will act differently with less pitch so give it a try.

Formula Outlaw,
What do you have for motors and drives? What top speed are you getting and what rpm are you turning at 53 mph?

Wags, I'm running your basic 454 "mags" and Bravo 1 drives. According to my GPS, I've hit 71/72 but only twice and both times I was light fuel load. Also believe I was running with the tide which will make a difference. It runs 67/68 consistently and 69 with a light fuel load.
I figure the biggest difference came from A) less prop slipage and B) the Quad's are raising my boat out of the water much more than the original Mirage 23's. The guys at Hydromotive spent about 45 minutes on the phone with me when I was making the inquirery and they told me exactly what to expect and why. They hit it right on the head. Those new 5 blade Hydro's are supposed to be pretty good. Like I said, I think I was getting a lot of prop slip with the orignal Mirage props.
Obviously this is just a guess, but I'd bet I'm running at least two inches if not more higher out of the water. A buddy of mine put the Quad's on his 32 Fountain and he got similar results. Russ

Wags, something else I just remembered. I seem to get a larger speed increase per 500 rpms from say like 3300 to 3800 than I do from say 3800 to 4300. Don't really understand that. I was considering putting a set of nose cones on the Bravo 1's but I'd like to hear some feedback or opinions before I spend the dough.

Russ,
Tom and Gary at Hydromotive are very knowledgeable and helpful and I will be contacting them for props on the 382 this summer. It sounds like your boat runs very strong for the set you have, up here in the fresh water the 311's with mags run more like mid sixty's. It takes a lot of power to move these 311's but with a couple 500+ hp motors it acts like a totally different boat.